Graduate Directory
- Title
- PhD Candidate
- Division Humanities Division
- Department
- History of Consciousness Department
- Mail Stop History Of Consciousness
Research Interests
Cybernetics, History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Psychoanalysis, STS, Critical Theory
Biography, Education and Training
M.A., Center for the Study of Theory and Criticism, Western University
B.A. (hons), Visual and Critical Studies, Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD University)
Won Jeon is a PhD candidate in the Department of the History of Consciousness at University of California, Santa Cruz and John C. Slater Predoctoral Fellow in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the American Philosophical Society (2025-2026). Her research traces the intellectual history of generative AI, emphasizing overlooked foundations in 19th century scientific traditions and early cybernetics. Combining archival research with theoretical analysis, her work critically examines how the concept of "learning," once rooted in human wisdom and folly, has been redefined by the computational systems that dominate our technological landscape.
Won works closely with the Gregory Bateson papers held at the UCSC Special Collections and Archives Library, with permission from the Bateson Idea Group (BIG).
Honors, Awards and Grants
2025 Hayden V. White Summer Dissertation Fellowship, The Humanities Institute, University of Santa Cruz
2025-2026 John C. Slater Predoctoral Fellowship in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, American Philosophical Society
2024 Science and Justice Research Center The SNU in the World Program, administered by the Office of International Affairs (OIA) at Seoul National University, Research Fellowship
2023 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Humanizing Technology Teaching Fellowship
2023 Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (CITL) Graduate Pedagogy Fellowship
2022 Robert Cavooris Memorial Award for Community Activism, UC Santa Cruz
2022 Summer Research Fellowship, The Humanities Institute, University of Santa Cruz
2019-2020 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Scholarship—Masters
2018 Governor General’s Academic Medal, silver medal for highest achivement in a bachelor degree program
2018 OCAD University Medal, Visual and Critical Studies
Selected Publications
“Everything, Everywhere, All at Once: Techno-Orientalism in an Age of “Cybernetic Capitalism.” Techno-Orientalism Vol. II: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. Edited by David S. Roh, Betsy Huang, Greta Niu. (Forthcoming July 2025).
“From Automation to AI: The Informatization of Labor." Qui Parle (2024) 33 (2): 347-362.
“Second-order recursions of first-order cybernetics: An ‘experimental epistemology.” Open Philosophy (2022); 5: 381-395. Topical Issue: (Neo)Cybernetic Paths for an Epistemology of Digital Cultures. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/opphil-2022-0207/html
“The boundaries that constitute us: Parasite and the illusion of solipsism in pandemic times.” Artnodes, No. 26 (2021): NODE 26. Art in the Time of the Pandemics. https://www.raco.cat/index.php/Artnodes/article/view/373958
“Panta Rhei and the Persistence of Old Premises: A Metalogue between Heraclitus and Marcus Aurelius.” The Scattered Pelican, 2019 Issue “Matters of Fact.” (October 2019).
Selected Presentations
Panel Organizer. "Learning, Limits, Logic: Epistemological Tensions in the History of Machine Learning." Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Annual Meeting, Luxembourg, October 9-11, 2025.
Panel Organizer. "Conceptions of Subjectivity in Artificial Intelligence," Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) Annual Meeting, Seattle. September 3-7, 2025.
"Project for a Cybernetic Psychology: The Freudian Origins of Informatics." History of Science Society (HSS) Annual Meeting, Merida, Mexico. November 7-10, 2024.
“Techno-Orientalism Evolves: Asianized Futures in Contemporary Film, Television, and Games.” Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) Annual Conference 2023, Long Beach, CA. April 6-9, 2023.
Teaching Interests
HUMN 25: Humans and Machines
HISC 122: What is the Psyche?
HISC 80S: War and Media (History of Cybernetics)
HISC 240: Foundations in Pedagogy
